'Mad Men' reaches the end

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

In honor of the final episodes of the last season of "Mad Men" we look back at the television show's wardrobe, which reflects the 1960s and inspired modern looks. One thing that hasn't changed much: the look of Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, right.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Wearing dark, formal suits was a nearly century-old tradition by the time "Mad Men" ad men donned identical looks -- with highballs -- at the Sterling Cooper agency in 1960. Their suits' slim silhouettes came from returning WWII soldiers' athletic figures, said University of Notre Dame history professor and author Linda Przybyszewski. Suits narrowed in the shoulders, torso and legs to fit the new physique.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

The Peter Pan collar Peggy wears in the first season of "Mad Men" was popular in the early 1960s and signaled the emergence of youth-oriented fashion, Przybyszewski said. At the time, Joan's bow collar was considered feminine and restrained. In the '70s, bow collars would plunge to new, revealing lengths.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Housewives like Betty Draper were expected to wear cheerful colors in 1960 because they dealt with children and the home, Przybyszewsi said. They also represented life in the suburbs; women working in offices in the city wore darker, muted colors and more formal attire.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

This outfit, which Joan wore in the second season set in 1962, is a great example of early 1960s minimalism, Przybyszewski said. The sweater and pencil skirt are fitted and accessorized simply, which felt modern in the 1960s.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

The maternity ensemble Betty wears in the third season, from 1963, represents a social norm about privacy that eroded as the 1960s came to a close. The concealing nature of her outfit maintained the idea that a woman's body and personal life were to be clear only to intimate relations, Przybyszewski said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Roger Sterling's three-piece suit in the fourth season represents the division of public and private at the office, Przybyszewski said. Even in 1964, a businessman would keep his jacket on to meet clients and take it off only in the privacy of his office.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

The episode "The Beautiful Women" from the fourth season took place in 1965 and showed the different trajectories of three professional women's lives. Peggy's hat and gloves indicate formality in the workplace that starts to erode quickly within the next few years, Przybyszewski said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Bare arms, short hemlines and plaid jackets, oh my! In 1966, busy patterns and bright colors became part of the decade's signature fashion, Przybyszewski said. At the time, short dresses led some men to rate women's exposed legs, with some of those "reviews" published in newspapers, she said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

"It looks like a convention of men selling used cars," Przybyszewski said of the bold blazers worn in the fifth season of "Mad Men." Ad men would never wear these outfits to the office in 1966, but it signifies a move away from their previously slender silhouettes. "Many a large person has been scared off from wearing plaids," she said. "Plaids always look bigger."

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

By the sixth season, it was 1968, and Megan Draper embodies the spirit of fashion experimentation, Przybyszewski said. Megan and Arlene are "supergroomed, superkempt," she said, as they take on new personas with wigs, caftans, colors and silhouettes. "It's an interesting '60s phenomenon that utterly disappears," she said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Black women carried a heavy style burden when their workplaces were run by white people, like Sterling Cooper Draper Price, Przybyszewski said. Many felt pressure to dress better than anyone else in the workplace, she said, and they still faced judgment -- especially of their hair -- from white and African-American colleagues alike.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

After Don Draper's personal crisis in the sixth season left Peggy to try to assume his role, she looks every bit the executive, Przybyszewsi said -- and every bit the fashion leader. Her knitwear ensemble was meant to show she has more important things to do than iron shirts.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

The advertising industry has always been opportunistic when it comes to new ideas, and so is fashion, Przybyszewski said. Maybe the "Mad Men" execs weren't ready to don dashikis and beads -- yet -- but they surely tried to capture some of the groovy, creative spirit they suggested in the late 1960s.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Over eight years in the "Mad Men" world, hemlines for women raised nearly as many inches, Przybyszewski said. By 1968, miniskirts were so ingrained in the public consciousness that women came up with solutions for flashing people when sitting down. One banker from Miami, interviewed by Time magazine, said his office's solution was to make women wear matching underpants, she said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

The first half of the seventh and final season debuted in April 2014 and covered the first half of 1969. With wild cravats, bolero ties, daisy brooches and fringed jackets, these advertisers are suiting up like the creatives of the late '60s, Przybyszewski said. "If you're in a creative field, you have to dress creatively," she said of this promotional photo. "These guys are living it."

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Colors have become more prominent and fabrics reflect a turn toward the synthetic. By 1969, Edwardian-style outfits for men -- with double-breasted suit jackets and patterned pants -- had come into fashion.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

In this promotional photo for the seventh season, Joan opts out of the "it dress" of the 1960s: a mini-skirted A-line that "made everyone look stumpy," Przybyszewski said. In order to carry off the look of the day, many women lost weight to emulate models like Twiggy, she said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

The Francis family shows off some fancy traveling duds in this promotional photo for the seventh season. Notice that the boys are wearing sneakers, but they're also wearing a vest and tie, she said. Sally's style is fashion-forward but still formal and appropriate for airplane travel at the time.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Don and Megan Draper show up to the airport in fashionably bright colors in this promotional photo for the seventh season. While researching 1960s fashion, Przybyszewski was surprised to find that women's dresses in the late 1960s could be even shorter than Megan's. The money spent on tights and pantyhose worn with these dresses was "mind-boggling," she said.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) dress casually -- for the times -- for an outdoor party.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

January Jones as Betty Francis wears a flowing dress in a season 7 promotional photo.

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Photos:The evolution of 'Mad Men' fashion

Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell has not only let his jackets get loud, he's let his sideburns grow long. Moss as Peggy has often seemed in-between looks on the show, a little looser than Betty but not quite as stylish as Megan.

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Story highlights

"Mad Men's" final seven episodes begin airing April 5

The show has never had high ratings but is considered one of the great TV series

For the 1960s, the end arrived with -- depending on your ideals and your tribe -- either the Rolling Stones' Altamont fiasco in December 1969, the Kent State shootings in May 1970 or Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election.

For "Mad Men," the "end of an era," as its slogan has it, begins Sunday.

Don Draper, the creative director played by Jon Hamm, has become a symbol of the times -- his and, sometimes, ours.

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For seven seasons, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) has been the focus of "Mad Men."

Its subjects have taken the show to heart. In March, a "Mad Men" bench was unveiled in front of New York's Time & Life Building, where the fictional firm of Sterling Cooper & Partners has its headquarters.

The end of a TV series brings with it some risk. "The Sopranos," "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner's former employer, divided fans with its famous cut-to-black finale. On the other hand, "Mad Men's" former AMC stablemate, "Breaking Bad," was saluted for an almost perfect landing.

Speaking of landings: The last season -- technically, the first half of season 7 -- ended with the moon landing in July 1969. Though Weiner and his cast have been typically tight-lipped -- Weiner even hid the finale from his cast at first -- it's reasonable to assume the new season will pick up soon afterward.

What's going to happen? Here are some educated guesses.

What year is it going to be?

The 1969 Miracle Mets won the World Series -- and, just as surprisingly at the time, New York Mayor John Lindsay, center, won re-election.

With the '60s screaming towards their conclusion, "Mad Men" probably won't jump ahead much. The latter half of 1969 included the Manson murders, the Woodstock festival, a New York mayoral campaign and the Vietnam War moratorium demonstrations -- plenty of fodder for the characters to interact with, if only tangentially.

Will the gang stay together?

"Mad Men" is generally a show about disintegration, reflective of the '60s themselves. The old orders are falling apart: white-shoe WASP firms like Sterling Cooper giving way to the ethnic pace-setters such as Doyle Dane Bernbach; grimy New York replaced by sunny Los Angeles; the "Good War" generation butting heads with the "Make Love, Not War" cohort; vacuum tubes and ledger books being displaced by a sleek, solid-state IBM world.

Computers, such as this IBM setup, were starting to take over business operations -- as Sterling Cooper saw last year.

It's all an ad agency can do to keep up.

Last season saw plenty of intraoffice turmoil, thanks to the ill-fitting merger between Sterling Cooper and former rival Cutler Gleason and Chaough. Though the agency survived, it's now without Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) and under the ownership of (real-life) Madison Avenue titan McCann Erickson.

That's not a recipe for long-term survival, and expect a number of longtime characters -- Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton), Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) and perhaps even Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) -- to look for an exit.

And what about Roger? What about Peggy?

Roger Sterling -- the wisecracking executive played by John Slattery -- might find an exit as well, but not one he's anticipating. He's suffered two heart attacks. He drinks to excess. He's never grown up. Bet on a sudden and shocking departure.

On the other hand, Peggy Olson's star has continued to rise (much like one of the character's models, advertising wunderkind Mary Wells Lawrence). She left Sterling Cooper once; indeed, she wouldn't have returned if her new agency hadn't merged with her old one. If Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss, bolts the firm, it will probably be to head her own agency -- and possibly get married. That is, if she's still interested in such an old-fashioned tradition.

What will become of Sally Draper and the rest of Don's family?

In recent seasons, Don's ex-wife, Betty (January Jones), has lost herself amid all the turmoil. She sees herself through the eyes of her spouses, and though husband Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) has been far more supportive than Don, he's a busy man.

And Sally, Don's daughter (Kiernan Shipka), is proving to be a handful. On the one hand, she's obviously bright; on the other, she's a teenager and starting to rebel. In recent seasons she's run away and started sneaking cigarettes, and she's always fighting with her mother. You could see her hitchhiking to Woodstock, or at least dropping out of school.

Will Don Draper die?

President Richard Nixon was embattled in the latter part of 1969 and called upon the "silent majority" to support him.

Instead, try this: It's April 1, 1970. Richard Nixon is signing legislation banning cigarette ads on radio and television, reminding Don of the day 10 years earlier when he came up with the Lucky Strike campaign that began the series. No fool, he had seen this day coming years before.

He'll fix himself a drink, ponder buying an avocado-colored refrigerator, clean out his ashtray and leave the show the way he arrived: on top of the zeitgeist, unable to accept his past and utterly, inscrutably alone.